I walked out of Tom
Wheeler’s speech beside
a broadcast attorney
shaking his head,
saying, “he seems so
nice.” The FCC chairman had just delivered a
keynote at the NAB Show, and in true-rock-star-
rather-than-public-servant-fashion, he
was whisked out of the room faster than a
president under threat level whatever. Which
was ironic, given his posture regarding this
Administration’s crusade to kick broadcasters
off the spectrum and further consolidate
public airwaves.

“The FCC is simply carrying out the will of
Congress,” he said. “There is no conspiracy.”

He’s just a guy doing a job. It’s not
personal. Really. He even put money
into broadcasting once; into mobile DTV.
(Woops.)

Look, he said with the confidence of a man
surrounded by no-neck dudes cleaning their
fingernails with switchblades, the spectrum
incentive auction is voluntary. Those orders
to unbundle the retrans negotiations that
cable operators requested and unwind joint
service agreements? Forgot those came just
four months into his tenure as chairman
and slashed roughly 15 to 20 percent off
broadcast stock values. Forget about how
many of those he has up his sleeve in the
next 14 months. This auction is voluntary, he
tells ya!

There really wasn’t much new. It was
the usual dual mélange about how much he
loves broadcasters as first responders—air
kiss air kiss—and how the fed is going to
squeeze them off the spectrum anyway,
because, well…

“Verizon and AT&T are exploring new lines
of business based on broadcast LTE. Verizon
paid $1 billion for NFL rights What does that
tell you? They’re all embracing something
that looks startlingly like what you do,” he
said.

Except for that it will not be free to
anyone, ever, anywhere. Two companies
ultimately will own what once were
considered public airwaves, and only those
who pay them will have access. That leaves
out a significant chunk of the voter base that
typically rolls Democratic.

This is what’s meant by “the public
interest.”

Just fyi.

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